[asterisk-users] Cisco Phones

Alex Balashov abalashov at evaristesys.com
Tue Oct 23 19:24:42 CDT 2007


Roy,

While there is a difference in the feature set provided by the
SIP and Skinny images for the Cisco phones, the loss is not
appreciable in my view.  There are some differences in interface
aesthetics as well.

The main problem tends to be that CallManager implements various
required services in an integrated manner, while their full-featured
accommodation in Asterisk environments requires the composition and
amalgamation of various disparate services that don't necessarily
talk to each other.  XML directory services are an example of this.

Another is autoprovisioning;  the phones don't really do well with being 
manually provisioned, and expect to be provisioned via TFTP in a 
CallManager environment. CallManager's TFTP server is integrated, so that 
phone settings can be configured from within the management portal; 
indeed, I believe it is even possible to push out settings to the phone 
without rebooting it or having it download a new config via TFTP, although 
I may be wrong.

Using them with Asterisk requires that you connect all of these different
applications together and make them work from one basic configuration set.
That is the primary pain from a business and organisational standpoint.

-- Alex

--
Alex Balashov
Evariste Systems
Web    : http://www.evaristesys.com/
Tel    : +1-678-954-0670
Direct : +1-678-954-0671



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